Can You Learn While You're Asleep?

Research suggests basic forms of learning are possible while snoozing.

If you're a student, you may have harbored the fantasy of learning lessons while you sleep. Who wouldn't want to stick on a pair of headphones, grab some shut-eye with a lesson about, say, Chinese history playing in his ears — and wake up with newly acquired knowledge of the Ming Dynasty?

Sadly, it doesn't work. The history lesson either keeps you from going to sleep, or it doesn't — in which case you don't learn it.

But researchers may have taken the first baby step to making the fantasy come true: In an unusual experiment published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers Anat Arzi, Ilana Hairston and others showed that people are capable of learning simple lessons while fast asleep.

The researchers sprayed volunteers with pleasant and unpleasant smells while they were fast asleep. Exactly like people who are awake, the sleeping volunteers took bigger breaths when there was a pleasant smell and a smaller breath when there was an unpleasant smell.

The researchers also paired each kind of smell with a particular sound. After repeated pairings of, say, a pleasant smell with a high-pitched beep, the researchers played the high-pitched beep without the smell: They found the volunteers took a big gulp of air. At least subconsciously, in other words, they were expecting the pleasant smell.

The researchers similarly paired an unpleasant smell – rotting fish – with another kind of tone. After repeated pairings, the tone alone caused the volunteers to take a smaller breath.

When the volunteers woke up, the researchers played the different tones to them. They found that the high-pitched beep caused the volunteers to take a big breath and the low-pitched beep caused the volunteers to take a small breath.

In other words, the conditioning lesson learned while the volunteers were asleep stayed with them after they awoke. Interestingly, the volunteers had no conscious recollection of having learned anything while they were sleeping.

Hairston said the research could help unlock the effects that sleep has on different brain processes. It's been known for a while that a nap can help cement things you've learned; Hairston said the sleep mechanisms that consolidate knowledge may explain why volunteers in the current experiment were able to bring what they learned during sleep into waking hours.

Practical applications of the conditioning technique are still far off, of course. But speculating about potential future uses, Hairston said: "A medical student can learn a list of body organs. You can perhaps pair different organs with smells. So you pair the thalamus with the smell of lemon, and the hippothalamus with the smell of orange blossom. When you wake up, you will have a better recollection of that list!"

About Me

Actor, Casting Director, Director, Broadcaster, Writer, Singer, Artistic
Director, Dramatur, Producer, Professor, Coach, Husband, Grandfather, Marketing
Professional and life long student Art Lynch joined the staff of John Robert
Powers in 1999. Lynch is also an adjunct professor at the Community College of
Southern Nevada, the Morning Edition Weekend Host for Nevada Public Radio and
one of 67 individuals who represent 126,000 actors as a member of the Board of
Directors of the Screen Actors Guild. He is the past president of the Nevada
Branch of the Screen Actors Guild and of the Professional Audio/Visual Communications
Association. A resident of Nevada since 1984, Lynch has an MA in Communications
from UNLV and a BA in Theater, Speech and Mass Communications from the
University of Illinois, Chicago. He is currently pursuing post-graduate studies
in theater, education and the entertainment industry. Art Lynch studied and
practiced the craft of acting in Chicago and California before settling in
Nevada. With his wife Laura, Art owned and operated a successful marketing
company with national clientele. Art was personally responsible for casting and
directing over 1,000 commercials and industrials, as well as assisting on film
and television projects in many ways. His career also includes earning awards
as a wire service, magazine and broadcast journalist. He is most proud,
however, of his daughters. Ann is a PhD in neuroscience and Beth is the proud
mother of his grandchildren, Evan and Elijah.

Short Film Festival

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